~ Acquired Brain Injury (ABI): from the acute hospital to early rehabilitation – more on: www.CaringforPadraig.org and www.ansaol.ie

StartUp

So now, Pádraig is at home, home. (Most of) his PAs have started. The extension is (almost) finished. (Some of) the equipment he needs has arrived. We’re (about) to organise therapy sessions with An Saol. We’re (almost) there.

Sounds like the end of something. Almost time to relax and sit back. After all the ‘excitement’ and drama and ups and downs and frustrations and uncertainties and sleepless nights and incredibly hard days. We got somewhere.

To the beginning. Of a new life. With all the uncertainties and excitement and opportunities.

One of Pádraig’s friends called in last night and was telling Pádraig a great story about how one of his friends greeted a few other friends from the middle of a big stage when they arrived (we know who you all are::) in the same familiar friendly way he would have done had they just appeared at the doorstep of his house. It brought a huge smile to Pádraig’s face and we knew he could not just imagine the scene exactly as it had happened, he could feel the friendship, the implied camaraderie, the meta-story with all the unspoken, unexpressed, but nonetheless present familiarity of the personalities of those involved.

It was brilliant.

Because he knew each of the people involved. He had spent the happiest years of his life with them. Those years no one wants to leave behind, years that should never end, years he looked back on when he sat on one of the Greens in Trinity College after his last exams and realised that they’d be coming to an end. Friends, a spirit of support and community, a togetherness, purpose, fun, music, energy, long nights, early morning sunrises, listening to the same songs again and again and again until the lyrics had been lodged forever into his memory, being together with the most amazing intelligent bright strange and wonderful people – what would happen to all of this?

Pádraig’s friends are the most wonderful people I’ve met in my (long!) life. They had the most wonderful time together and they will always watch out for each other. Over time, their life will evolve, change, and move in different directions. In the way that Pádraig imagined that day sitting in the sun on one of the Greens in Trinity College. Their relationship has changed and will continue to change.

There are new roles and responsibilities that will evolve.

And millions of new ways of having fun together, of enjoying quiet moments, of listening to new music, of watching new films, of reading new (and old) books, of sharing stories, of going out to see plays, see bands, sit in the sun, sit in the rain.